In a service-oriented architecture environment, a service consumer generally sends a request message for a service to a service provider. The service provider receives the service request message, processes the service request message, and returns a corresponding service response message to the service consumer. The service consumer includes a service loader, which obtains a type of the service, generates a service description based on the service type, and initializes a runtime for the service in accordance with the service description, thereby allowing the service consumer to utilize the service represented by the service type.